By trumping Fox and ESPN by as much as it did, NBC assumed a constant if not ever-growing market for Olympic advertising that it believed would produce about $900 million in national sales for Vancouver...

Oops. And then there was the unforeseen Great Recession and the collapse of the US car industry.

FOX's David Hill, whose bid was $700 million less than NBC's, suggests that NBC bid with its heart not its head.

Meanwhile, Dick Ebersol is annoyed that GE CEO Jeff Immelt revealed that NBC is losing its shirt, because this has given advertisers the idea that the desperate NBC will give them huge discounts.